The Things We Have
by Once.upon.a.happy.ending
Summary: Emma did put Henry up for adoption and he did go to Regina, but it wasn't a closed adoption. She still sees him. When Neal comes back into Emma's life a few months after she gets out of prison, he gets to join her in going up to Maine to see him and his adoptive mother. Swanfire family fluff with Regina! Rated T just to be safe but could probably go as K .
1. The Things We Have

**This is something that was _kinda_ requested to me on Both of Us but not really. It's just a short multi-chapter version of The Things We Have series. I wouldn't expect it to get _too_ long but it certainly might if I keep postponing the ending.**

Emma pulls into the place that August told her to go to meet them. The second her eyes land on him, she tears up but ends up wiping them away. She gets out of her car, slamming the door and walking over to them. The first thing she does is wrap her arms around Neal. Then, she turns to August and socks him in the jaw.

Neal's eyes widen as he tries to pull her off of him, knowing that the last thing Emma needs is prison charges for assault. She continues to struggle against his hold until Neal goes in front of her and wraps his arms around her. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay," he whispers, placing his hand on the back of her head and cradling it.

August had explained everything related to Neal's disappearance to her prior to them meeting, saying that he didn't want Neal to have to explain something that wasn't his fault to her. After a few minutes of just enjoying being together, they decide to go inside of the coffee shop instead of just standing outside. "We have a kid," she tells him as they sit down, figuring that it'd be a great conversation starter and she would have to tell him eventually.

Neal just stares at her with a blank look in his eyes, a grim expression on his face. "His name is Henry. He lives in Maine with his adoptive mother," she says and sees tears beginning to form in Neal's eyes. She reaches across the table and takes his hands, moving her drink out of the way so she doesn't knock it over.

She squeezes his hands, leaning over the table so that she can see his face. "Please don't cry, it's okay," she cooes, sending a glare in August's direction. She wants to tell him that she hates him and use many swear words to make sure he understands just how much but she doesn't want Neal to think that she's actually talking to him, so she doesn't.

He looks up at her, wiping the tears from his eyes and putting his face in his hand. "I see him sometimes. I go up there once a month for a few days. You could come with me next time. I have to ask Regina, but I'm sure she'll say yes. She loves him, Neal. She takes care of him and she's great to me. She says I can take him back anytime, so it's kinda like she's just watching him for me for a little while," Emma explains, trying to make him feel better.

He nods, looking over at the wall and shaking his head in disbelief. "You didn't tell me," he says, looking over at August and the other man shakes his head, shrugging.

"I didn't know."

Neal sighs and puts his head down on the table, his forehead resting on his arm. Emma looks over to August and glares at him. "Get out of here," she says and the man gets up, walking out of the shop and leaving Emma and Neal alone. She stands up, going to sit beside Neal in August's place. She wraps her arms around him and rests her cheek on his back, waiting for him to stop shaking.

She looks over at the clock, sighing and sitting up. She takes his hand, having him sit up as well. "I was gonna go to Regina's like, literally right after this. Is it okay if I go and call her and then if she's okay with you coming we can stop by whenever you're living and get your stuff before we go?" she asks and Neal nods. Emma smiles, kissing his cheek before getting up and going to go and call her.

She's gone for a few minutes before she comes back to the table and looks over at him, smiling and reaching across the table to get her coffee. "She said yes. She's really excited to meet you, so come on," she says, taking his hand and they walk out of the building together. "Are you coming with me, or do you have a car someplace around here?" she asks.

Neal chuckles and looks up at her, smiling as he walks over to the bug with her. "No, August picked me up at my apartment to save gas," he says and Emma smiles, handing him the keys to the car. "Wha-?" he asks before she cuts him off, looking over at the building.

"I don't know where your apartment is. You're driving there, we can take turns on the way to Maine," she says, talking as they get into the car and Neal starts the engine, taking off and driving to his apartment.

They get there and Emma laughs a little bit and for a second Neal thought she was laughing about the building but quickly realizes it's the sign that says not to chain bikes to the gate with a bike on the other side, which is, of course, chained to the gate.

Neal lets out a breathy chuckle as he opens the gate and holds it open for her. They walk up to his apartment and Emma takes note of the fact that his room number is 407, just so that she doesn't have to ask the next time she needs to know it. "I'll try to be quick," he says and Emma nods, going immediately over to the window where their dream catcher hangs in the window.

Neal grins as he looks at her while he takes out his suitcase. "Do you want that? You can take it," he says but she shakes her head, hanging it back up on the window. His smile fades a bit as he puts clothes neatly into his suitcase.

She walks into the other room, going to sit on the bed while he packs his suitcase. "I already have the pictures," she says, handing him a pair of socks that he missed while trying to throw them into the suitcase.

Neal nods, smiling a bit as he remembers all of the old photos that they took with a Polaroid camera- one that he still had sitting in his desk drawer, along with half a package of unused film. He walks over to the desk and picks it up out of the drawer, bringing it and the film over to the bed to put in his backpack. "Oh my god, I can't believe you still have that," she says and he smiles, nodding.

She watches as he zips up his backpack, then goes and grabs down a backpack from the closet and puts his sweat-shirt into it along with his sketchbook, the camera and its film, and a few other things that he wasn't paying enough attention to to recognize. "You're bringing it?" she asks as she watches him put it into his backpack.

He nods, looking over at her and smiling brightly before answering. "Of course! Maybe we could get some more good memories in pictures out of this trip," he says, putting it in the back wrapped up in his sweater so that it won't break if he drops the bag. "I'm ready to go if you wanna," he says and she nods, standing up and they walk downstairs to her car. He puts his suitcase in the trunk next to hers and his backpack on the seat behind him in the car so he'll be able to reach it if he needs to.

They start driving and after many hours of driving and many breaks along the way, they finally get to Storybrooke. Emma parks outside a nice little house and rubs Neal's arm as he begins to shake with nerves. "What if he doesn't like me?" he asks, resting his cheek on his hand.

Emma gives him a look, staring at him funny. "He's 6 months old, Neal," she says and he sighs, putting his head in his hands. Emma opens her door, grabbing her backpack out of the trunk and handing Neal's to him before they start going to the door. "Just calm down, okay," she mumbles after ringing the doorbell. They hear a cry, one of a child, approaching the door as they see the blurry outline of Regina through the door's glass.

She answers the door and gives Emma a hug as best she can. "Hi," she says breathlessly and shakes Neal's hand. "Regina Mills, nice to meet you," she says, offering him as best of a smile as she can while holding their screaming child.

Emma looks at her, tilting her head to the side as she watches her and then sees her sigh as the microwave starts to go off. "I can take him, Gina," she says, putting her backpack down on the ground and taking Henry from Regina so she could go and get what was probably a bottle for the wailing baby from the microwave.

Regina smiles at her gratefully, taking her hand in both of her own before rushing into the kitchen, Emma following slowly behind her. Henry calms down almost instantly when Emma takes him and grabs onto her finger with all of his, playing with it with both of his hands. Emma smiles at him, bouncing him up and down as they make their way into the kitchen.

Emma sits down on one of the bar stools at the small breakfast bar and Neal sits down beside her, looking at their son in awe. "Do you wanna hold him?" Emma asks, seeing that Neal's watching Henry and the baby is reaching for him while sitting on her lap. Neal nods and Emma passes Henry to him. Neal sits the baby on his thigh, holding onto him with both hands until he feels comfortable with just one like Emma does.

Regina looks over at him after the bottle is all done, smiling at the father and son meeting each other for the first time, Henry already seeming to have taken a liking to Neal and is holding onto his shirt with both hands and leaning against his chest. Neal's holding onto his son, looking down at him with such compassion and affection for the little boy.

Neal notices that Regina's watching him and looks up at her, seeing that she's holding an already made bottle in her hands. "Do you wanna feed him?" she asks and Neal nods once, a small smile spreading across his face and she hands it to him before coming around the other side of the counter and showing him how to hold Henry while feeding him.

Emma smiles as she watches Neal with the kid. She never really knew how good he was with kids until now. Sure, there was maybe once or twice when they found kids on the road that they felt the need to take care of and watched overnight, and then the few that lost their parent's in the grocery store or had fallen off something at the park, but that was really it and they were all for short periods of time and none of them was his own child. Now, she was beginning to see that side of him.

He makes sure to hold onto Henry tight while feeding him, afraid to drop him or hurt him in some way. Emma smiles as he looks up at her and smiles, chuckling a little bit as Henry let's go of the bottle and starts using his little fists to try to push the bottle away. "I can take that, here's this," Regina says, handing him a cloth in exchange for the half-full bottle.

He looks at it with a confused expression until Henry starts crying a minute later and Emma helps him. She puts the cloth on his shoulder and helps him pick Henry up. "You have to pat his back. He'll throw it up a little bit because that's what babies do but it's completely normal," she says watching as Neal pats Henry's back and he throws up. Neal makes a face and Regina comes around to take the cloth from Henry.

She looks over at Emma when she comes back into the kitchen from the laundry room. "Hey, have you guys had dinner yet? I could fix something up, or we could go out somewhere if you wanna go someplace," she offers and Emma looks to Neal, who is too fixated on the giggling baby sitting on his lap.

Emma looks back to Regina and smiles, looking over at her. "It depends. Has Henry left the house today?" Emma asks and Regina shakes her head and Emma remembers that she was getting her cable fixed. "Let's go out, then. It might be good to get him out of the house," Emma says and Regina nods, walking over to the door and slipping a pair of converse on before grabbing Henry's car seat and walking over to Neal.

Regina watches as he reluctantly places his child in the seat and Emma can see that he's beginning to get nervous as his hands start shaking, something that happens very rarely. "You can sit next to him in the backseat if you'd like," Regina says and Neal nods. She straps the baby's car seat into the car and Neal goes around to get in the middle row of the backseat.

He learns on that car trip that Henry doesn't like his car seat. He knows that he can't take Henry out of the car seat but he does reach over so that Henry can see him and tickles his stomach lightly, which makes the baby laugh and stop crying. When they get out of the car, Neal just carries him, figuring that it would be easier than carrying his car seat into the restaurant while the child screams the whole time.

They sit Henry in a high chair at first, but when he starts crying Neal takes him out and holds him on his lap while they eat. "Neal, if you rip the fries into little pieces he can eat them," Regina says, watching as Neal tries to convince Henry to eat a little piece of chicken that he ripped up. "Chicken is still too stringy for him so he could choke on it, though," she says and Neal nods, taking out a fry from the basket and ripping it up into tiny pieces before putting it into Henry's mouth gently.

The baby smiles and giggles a little bit as Neal continues ripping off pieces of fries and feeding them to Henry. After about two of them, Neal stops it, figuring that it's not healthy to give him too many of them. They leave after everyone's eaten already and Neal has to put Henry back in his car seat, something that he really doesn't want to do because he knows that Henry hates it, but he knows that it's not safe to not put him in the car seat.

After they get back to Regina's house, they hang out for a little bit before it's bedtime, when Henry went to his nursery, Emma and Neal went into the guest room- which was pretty much just Emma's room seeing as she was the only one who stays in it- and Regina goes to her room. One thing that Neal knows is that he's very, very excited for the next day when they would have even more fun with their son and maybe even get to take some pictures with the Polaroid camera to take home with them.


	2. The Things We Want

**Enjoy!**

Neal wakes up and feels something heavy on his arm. He looks down to see Emma there and he smiles, the memories from the day before rushing into his mind. He looks at the clock before sitting up. He gently moves Emma's head off of his arm and stands, throwing some clothes on before starting towards the door. "Where you goin'?" Emma asks sleepily, picking her head up off of the pillow that he had gently laid her down on.

He turns around and smiles sheepishly at her before walking back to the bed. "I was gonna go see if Henry's awake," he explains and she smiles, sitting up before climbing out of bed and getting dressed so she can join him on seeing their son. They walk into the kitchen, already seeing Regina cooking breakfast and Henry in his high chair playing with a rattle toy.

Neal walks over to the chair and immediately Henry gets happy, smiling really big and holding his arms out for his father. Neal smiles and reaches down, picking Henry up and carrying him over to the breakfast bar stools where they sat the night before. "So, do you guys wanna do something today?" Emma asks, going to sit beside Neal and Henry at the counter.

Regina nods, handing them each plates with eggs and bacon on them. Neal looks over at her, smiling gratefully as he begins to start eating, Henry reaching up and trying to take some eggs from Neal. "It's okay if he has a little bit of those," Regina says, looking at Neal before turning to Emma. "What do you want to do?" she asks, looking in between the two of them.

Emma shrugs, looking over at Neal. "We could go to the mall or something," he says, putting a little piece of egg in Henry's mouth and the boy smiles at him, clapping his hands together for more. "Or do something else," he says looking up at them. Regina nods, looking over at Henry and thinking for a minute.

They sit in silence for a few minutes before Regina says something about it. "The mall sounds good," she says, looking over at Emma. "We can go later today," she adds, reaching over at Neal and smiling brightly at Emma. After they finish eating, they all go into the living room where there are a bunch of toys laying about.

Henry sits in the middle of the floor next to Neal, who just sits and watches. "Does he like trains?" Neal asks, seeing that there are only a few trains amidst a pile of cars and planes.

Regina looks down at him, smiling as she glances over at her little boy. "Of course he does! Every little boy like trains, don't they?" she asks, just as Henry's about to put one of the few trains he has in his mouth. "No, Henry, don't do that," she says, getting up and taking it from the boy.

Henry starts crying loudly, which kind of scares Neal and he freezes up, unable to even try to comfort the boy because he's afraid to bother him more than he already is. Emma notices this and looks to Regina, who nods in approval and she gets down on the floor kneeling in front of Henry, picking him up and taking him over to her love.

She hands Henry to Neal, who just looks at her in shock for a minute before taking Henry and bouncing him up and down a little bit, which makes the boy stop crying almost immediately and grabs Neal's shirt in his little fists, much like the night before. "It's okay, buddy. It's okay," Neal cooes and Henry reaches forwards, putting both his hands on the sides of Neal's face.

Neal laughs a little bit as Henry starts patting the sides of his face with both hands simultaneously, giggling as he does so. Neal takes Henry's hands and claps them together rather than on his face. "We should go soon," Regina says and Emma nods, going to the guest room to get her and Neal's shoes from the floor.

She walks over to them and takes Henry from Neal so he can put his shoes on and then Neal takes Henry back so that Emma can put her own shoes on. Regina straps Henry into the car seat when they get outside and Neal sits in the back with him again while they drive off to the mall to walk around and buy things that they don't need.

Neal carries Henry through the store, even though there are strollers that they can use at the door. It's then when Emma realizes why he's so attached to their son, why he woke up early to go and see him, why he has hardly put him down since they got there.

He knows that eventually, they're gonna have to go back home. He's scared that next time, he might not be invited back to see him. He's afraid that these few days will be the only times he has with his little boy and he thinks that if they're close enough for long enough when Henry grows up he might just remember a little of it. He might just remember the times he spent with his father as a baby. He might just remember how badly his daddy wanted to be with him.

Her heart breaks. She looks over at her son and her lover, seeing Henry pointing to things in the store and Neal smiling as he looks in the direction of them. She sees him talking to their little boy like he can understand. She walks closer to him, smiling at Henry as he grabs her nose and starts pulling on it.

She takes his hand off of it and moves it to Neal's nose, which Henry grabs onto immediately and starts smiling. "You're gonna see him again, you know. I was talking to Regina earlier and she said that she'd like it if you came back with me from now on," she says and his face falls. Henry notices it and grabs Neal's face and claps like he did when they were at home. When Neal doesn't laugh or smile, he starts crying, probably able to tell that Neal's sad.

Neal bounces him up and down a little bit, both Emma and Regina stop so that Neal can take care of Henry. "It's okay, buddy. Daddy's okay," he whispers, rubbing Henry's back a little bit and the baby leans back, still crying, and puts his hands on Neal's face and does the thing again. Neal smiles and Henry smiles stops crying and does it again until Neal laughs.

Then Henry leans down and puts his head on Neal's shoulder. Emma smiles as they begin walking again, standing next to Neal. "Really, though. I'd like it if you did. If eventually, we're planning on taking him back, he should get to know his daddy," she says, smiling as she says 'daddy'. She doesn't know why but it just sounds _right._

They walk around the mall for a little while, going through and buying many things that they don't really need, to take back home. They take Henry back to the house and Regina lets Emma and Neal experiment on giving him a bath, which was very fun for them seeing as they, too, had to change out of their clothes by the time they were done because they were soaking wet, too.

They go out for dinner again and Henry gets some more french fries and they go back home, putting Henry down before the adults watch a movie and then go to bed, themselves.


	3. The Things We Love

**There's a little bit less Regina in this chapter but I promise she'll be back in the next one!**

Emma wakes up to a crying. She sits up, looking at the clock. _3:45._ She crawls out of bed, walking down the hall to her son's nursery and going to the crib, picking him up out of it gently and beginning to bounce him up and down, much like Neal had done the day before in the store but it doesn't calm the baby down. If anything, he screams louder.

She looks down at him walking over to the rocking chair in the corner and sitting down on it, holding him on her lap so that he doesn't fall off. "Shhh, it's okay, Henry. It's okay," she whispers before reaching forwards and kissing him on the head. This only seems to quiet Henry for a minute before he continues screaming.

She walks over to the crib, taking out a toy for him to play with from it but Henry doesn't seem to like this. He takes the toy, looks at it for a second, then throws it to the floor. Emma sighs and bends down to pick it up. "I don't know what you need, sweetie. I'm sorry, I know. I don't know how to do this," she whispers, beginning to tear up. She begins trying to bounce him up and down again but it doesn't work very well this time.

How stupid this must look, a mother and her son sitting in a nursery, both of them in tears and neither knowing how to stop it. After a few seconds, she closes her eyes, breathing deeply until she calms her own tears, still not knowing how to calm the baby.

After a few minutes, she's able to hear faint footsteps down the hallway and then the door opening. She looks up only to find her boyfriend approaching them, a soft smile on his lips as he watches Emma trying to comfort their son. "Help?" she asks desperately and he chuckles, kneeling down beside the chair and looking over at her and then the child.

For a minute she thinks that he's gonna say that he can't help her or something oddly profound like that but instead, he puts his hand over her's, the one that's resting on the arm of the chair instead of being used to hold up their son, and squeezes it. "First of all, you gotta calm down, too. He can tell that you're upset and it's only gonna make it worse," he says and she nods, taking a few deep breaths before continuing.

After she seems more calmed down, he looks over at their little baby boy, who still hasn't stopped crying. "I think he likes it when you hold him close to you, he feels safe, so maybe you could try that," Neal suggests and Emma nods, picking Henry up gently and pulling him closer to her, resting his head against her shoulder and holding him just tight enough so that he won't fall.

He seems to calm down quite a bit but the crying doesn't cease just yet. Neal tilts his head to the side, thinking of what to do about that. "Maybe if you hum something or talk… he might be able to feel the vibrating in your chest and it might calm him down," he says and Emma looks at him like he's crazy. "I'm serious," he states, his face going completely deadpan.

She sighs before she starts humming some song she had heard on the radio on the way up there. Henry's cries seem to go away, for the most part, all that's left is some whimpers every few seconds and some little baby noises that he's always making. She smiles, holding him tightly to her before Neal checks the clock on the other side of the room.

He sighs, walking back over to them and looking at Emma, who remains in the rocking chair with Henry against her chest, his tiny fists grabbing onto her shirt much like he had done to Neal a few times before. "It's four o'clock," Neal says, going to sit beside Emma on another chair that sits in the room. She nods, still looking down at Henry, who has yet to fall asleep but is still calm, holding onto Emma's shirt like a lifeline.

Emma looks up at Neal in realization, beginning to understand something new about their little boy. "He has anxiety," she states quietly and Neal looks at her funny like she might be crazy but he's not completely sure yet. "He cries when he thinks people are sad or mad because of him, he was crying earlier but he's not hungry and doesn't need to be changed, he doesn't like his car seat because he feels stuck there… He totally does," she says and Neal tilts his head to the side, his girlfriend's conclusion to their son's crying suddenly making more sense.

Neal nods after a second, looking at the baby who's curled up against his mother's chest, and smiles at him, taking his hand off of Emma's shirt so that he doesn't stretch it out too much or ruin it. The second that his hand comes off of Emma's shirt, it wraps around Neal's finger and he smiles, using his thumb to rub the back of Henry's hand.

Emma looks up at Neal, who smiles back at her. After a few minutes, Emma feels Henry relax completely against her and looks to Neal again, smiling slightly and looking over at him and shaking his head. "We should go back to bed," he whispers and she nods, walking over to the crib and placing him down gently into it.

Neal walks back into the room with Emma and pulls her into his arms once they've gotten into bed, putting his hand over hers, which is rested on his chest. "I love you," he whispers and she looks up at him, picking herself up and leaning on her arm.

Tears begin to form in her eyes as she looks up at him. He wonders whether or not he did the right thing and he's about to take it back, to tell her that it's fine and that she doesn't need to say it back or anything when she smiles and reaches up and kisses his cheek. "I love you, too. I'm glad you came with me," she says and Neal nods, reaching down and kissing her head before they both fall right back asleep, as if they never even got out of bed in the first place.

 **To the guest reviewer!** **I'm replying on here because I** ** _can't_** **reply directly (make an account, really.) Regina would not necessarily be happy letting Henry go but she knows that it's Emma and Neal's kid and she wants them to have him back if they want him. She's probably thought long and hard about it and has come to a realization that if she keeps that kid even if his parents want him, how badly is that going to affect him? He'll spend his life wondering why they gave him away in the first place if they could've had him and she doesn't want that for him even if he is her son legally and she doesn't have to give him away. Sure, she'd love it if he was staying with her because she loves him but if he's going to spend his life hurting because of that, she doesn't want to force that upon him. I think in this story I'm trying to make Regina less of a villain than in Season One of ONCE and I'm trying to show that she just wants what's best for Henry, not herself and if that's being with Emma and Neal, then it's being with Emma and Neal.**

 **I hope that explained it. If not, once you make an account you can PM me and I can try to explain a little bit better.**


	4. The Things We Left

**Sorry, I haven't updated this in a while. Anyway, this chapter came to me out of nowhere and I thought it was a good (and scary) idea for a family story. I hope you like it, please review on this! Also, I'll take ideas or prompts for what could happen next, because I'm not sure exactly what will. Thank you! Enjoy!**

Regina helps Emma pack the suitcases into the bug while Neal holds Henry, who seems to be completely happy as he doesn't yet know that the numbers in the house are about to change dramatically once again.

It's the day Neal and Emma are leaving to go back to their home. There have already been tears spilled on every end, but they all know that they have responsibilities there and that they'll be back here soon enough.

Neal smiles at Henry and gives him one last kiss on the forehead before handing him to Regina. Emma smiles over at them and kisses Henry's head one more time as well before they get into the car and begin driving off, both of them with tears falling from their eyes, wishing they hadn't had to say goodbye to their son again.

Over time, they get back into the swing of things, laughing and talking and having a good time. They stop at some hotel about six hours away from Regina's house after getting dinner.

Neal settles down on the bed and Emma goes to get in the shower. He waits for her to get out so he can do the same, staying put on the bed and drinking a coke.

Emma gets out of the shower and begins brushing her hair and Neal's getting some clothes out of his suitcase when the phone rings. Emma rushes to pick it up, seeing as she doesn't get phone calls from people all that often when she finds Regina's name flashing across her screen.

She shows it to Neal before picking it up and he waits, wanting to maybe talk with his son's mother as well. He doesn't get a chance to, though.

The phone call ends within five minutes and the whole time Neal's getting an insane feeling in the pit of his stomach that there's something _wrong._ From the time the look on Emma's face falls from a happy one, to a worried one, to a crying one.

She puts the phone down and looks up at him, already beginning to shuffle around and throw things back into the suitcase. "We need to go back. There's something wrong with Henry, he's running a really high fever and he was shaking and she's taking him to the hospital right now but we need to _go._ Neal, are you even listening?!" she asks, looking up and finding him just standing and staring at her.

She throws a shirt at him and he snaps out of it, looking up at her, staring stupidly and awaiting further instruction. "Start mo-ving!" she shrieks and his eyes go wide as she hits him with the shirt hard on the arm. He runs into the bathroom and grabs a few things from the counter and they rush off, paying the bill for whatever five minutes they were in the room.

They throw things haphazardly into the car and drive off, Emma brushing the rest of her hair in the car. They're both shaking with nerves by the time they pull up into the hospital parking lot six hours later and they run in, finding Regina sitting in the waiting room, her leg bouncing up and down in some kind of a fidgety way.

She stands and pulls Emma into a hug and then Neal, too. "What happened?" Emma asks, worriedly. She knows that Henry sometimes gets sick, but never this bad and it's normally just a little cough. She thought that was normal, though, not something so serious as to land in the hospital!

Regina shakes her head and sits back down, Emma going beside her and Neal sitting on the coffee table across from them. "I don't know. He was fine when you left and then about two hours later, he started shaking. I took his temperature and saw that he was running a low-grade fever, so I gave him some Tylenol like the doctor told me to, but it didn't help. Then, he started burning up and breathing funny and I brought him here," she explains, wringing her hands and sighing.

Neal nods, putting his hand on her arm. "You did the right thing," he says and Emma nods, too, putting her hand on her forehead and running it across it, worriedly and sighing, leaning back against the chair.

They all sit in the waiting room for a couple hours, not knowing what to say or do besides just sit and wait. The doctor doesn't come out and they don't know exactly why, but they all agree that no news is good news, that that means that whatever it is, Henry's still alive.

That's all that matters to them. That they're all still alive and that Henry is in the best care he can be in.

The doctor comes out a few hours after Emma and Neal arrive at the hospital and stands in front of all three of the worried parents. "It's the flu. It's a mild case, it was caught early on. We're gonna go ahead and give him some liquid medicines that'll hopefully bring the fever down and make him stop shaking, but you can come into the room and hold him and all that. We just want to keep him overnight, just in case." he says and everybody sighs in relief.

They all stand and follow the doctor - in this case, their miracle worker- into the back where all the rooms are. He opens up the door and they follow him into it, to the middle of the room where there's a crib containing their son. Emma reaches down and picks him up and nobody objects, seeing as she might as well have been the most worried out of all of them.

She puts her hand on the back of his head and he reaches up and puts his hand on her shoulder, letting out a tiny little baby sigh. She smiles softly and let's go of his head. He reaches up tiredly and puts his hand on her nose and she laughs a little bit, taking it off. "Henry, you scared me. Yes, you did. You're good at that, aren't you?" Emma asks in a little baby voice and he smiles, clapping his hands together just like normal.

The doctor turns around from the counter and walks over to them, standing on the opposite side of the empty crib. "So, this medicine might temporarily make him a little bit tired; less active. Is it still okay to give it to him?" he asks and they all nod, looking at their son, who was okay and alive and healthy instead of the opposite; how they thought he'd be.

Henry snuggles up against Emma's chest and the doctor asks her to sit down and hold onto him while he gives the boy his medicine. Henry squirms about and cries a bit while the doctor gives it to him, but when Emma turns him back around, he cuddles right back up against her chest and begins to fall asleep, and Emma doesn't even _want_ to move and put him back down in the crib because she's just so _happy_ that he's finally okay and safe and she knows it.


	5. The Things We Calm

**Hi, guys! I changed my username to match my Instagram one because I felt like it would make more sense, so I hope it didn't confuse anybody. I'm so sorry if it did! Remember, for this story if you have an idea that goes along with what's happened so far, I might use it! Enjoy!**

The nurses shuffling around outside were making it hard to concentrate on anything; especially staying calm. The world seemed to be revolving around them, or anybody that was in the room at the moment.

Emma's ears felt like she was underwater. She didn't know why, but it seemed like the more nervous she was, the harder it was to concentrate on anything other than the nervousness. That's why Neal always waved his hands in front of her face when she was nervous because she would space out.

Henry was currently asleep on her chest. This wasn't weird at all, besides the fact that she wasn't able to move without waking him. She had tried; it failed. It was a good thing that Henry wasn't normally a crier because that meant when he was sick, he was maybe just as fussy as any normal baby.

When he had woken up, he hardly cried. He just started squirming around and eventually pulling on her shirt. Luckily, that was back when everybody in the room was still awake and Neal helped her take him over to the little couch in the corner so that she would be comfortable without having to put the baby down.

She was now sitting the same way as she had been back then, with a few minor changes in her position. She was leaned up against the cold wall, which wasn't too bad because the room was actually a little bit warm; probably because she had a baby with a high fever laying on top of her.

One of Neal's sweatshirt's that he had brought up from the bug for Emma to wear was now laying on top of Henry, keeping him warmer. She wasn't cold anymore, and while the baby wasn't, the doctor said that it was good to cuddle him up to keep him warm and 'sweat out' the sickness.

Her legs were lying just flat down against the couch, Henry's little ones resting on top of her stomach and his feet resting on the tops of her thighs, keeping him from sliding down. Her hands were shaking just a little bit as she rested them flat on Henry's little back, trying to keep him from rolling off if he started turning.

She was tempted to just move a little bit. She had a pillow under her back that she hadn't really thought would be a problem when they were sitting down, but over time she had readjusted the way she was sitting and now it was bent in a way that was digging straight into her back.

It's funny how things like that can bother somebody. Little, tiny, nitpicky things that you notice so much when you're laying against a wall with nothing else to notice.

The TV wasn't on. The doctor had come in a while before and taken one look at all of the other adults in the room that were asleep before asking Emma if she wanted him to turn it off. Of course, she had said yes, not wanting to wake everyone else up, but soon she had come to regret that decision.

It was too hard to sit in this room with her son lying on top of her chest, knowing that just a few hours ago she had thought that he might already be dead. Before she could say anything to him about how much she loved him and actually have him understand her. How much she _meant_ it.

She couldn't look at him. She had him on top of her, breathing as heavily as a baby probably can. She could feel his heart beating, for the love of God. She knew that it was all supposed to be okay for now, that the medicine that the doctor gave him would help, but she was still so shocked that he was actually okay. It was rattling.

She knew that Regina and Neal felt the same way, too. Or, rather, they _would_ feel the same way if they were actually awake. She was fine with the fact that they were both resting. Regina had to have been terrified earlier and Emma of all people knows what that can take out of a person. She was also pretty sure that Neal had a panic attack earlier after they had gotten to the hospital, but she didn't want to ask too many questions.

Suddenly, Henry starts crying. Emma looks down at him and sits up, holding him so that his head rests on her shoulder. "Shhh, baby. It's okay, you're okay," she whispers, sitting him down on her leg and brushing his hair back. He apparently doesn't want to sit up, though, because he then leans right back against her, practically falling.

She picks him back up again and stands, walking around the small portion of the room that they've resided in. She bounces him up and down as she walks, shushing him in a calm, soothing tone- or at least the best one that she can wrangle up.

It doesn't work too well, sadly, because he continues to cry and cry. She sighs and walks back over to the crib in the center of the room. She lowers one of the sides down all the way so that she has a place to put him where she can still reach him easily.

She lays him down and picks the rail back up, effectively making him cry even louder. She washes her hands in the sink, not wanting to do anything that she's about to do without having washed them. She walks back over and lowers the rail down again.

She slowly does this, not wanting to scare him. She then sits in the chair next to the crib. She reaches over to him and pulls the front of his zipper on his onesie down just a little bit. She then begins to rub his chest slowly, causing his crying to cease.

She smiles as he begins to look like the happy little baby he is, squirming around a little bit, but having a smile on his face. "There you go, baby. That's better, isn't it?" she coos, pulling his zipper up once again before bringing him back over to her chest. "I love you, kid," she whispers, holding his head against her shoulder gently.

Slowly, Henry falls back asleep, this time, with his mama watching him and not feeling the slightest bit overwhelmed by it.


End file.
